how to raise children with naturally straight teeth? make sure to begin developing their jaws from young age.
In my previous article, what causes crooked teeth?
we identified that crooked teeth is actually caused by incorrect skull shape.
We have been anatomical humans for well over 160,000 years and malocclusion (crooked teeth & jaws) only begun to show up in the masses 200-300 years ago after Industrial Revolution.
We are evolved to live in more natural hunter & gatherer lifestyle not our current modern one. When early European settlers went to various islands, they often commented how physically perfect the indigenous tribes people were.
Because our diet has gotten too soft our skulls are lengthening due to weak jaw muscle and the jaws aren’t developing to its potential due to lack of use.
Zoo animals require tough diet, or their jaws can collapse.
Ancestor to Modern Skull: Cranial Facial Dystrophy (lengthening of the face)
I was watching a famous longstanding, Japanese comedy show that’s aired from 1994-2011, in which Japan’s top comedian Akashiya Sanma talks about love and relationships in a funny way with around 30 random women that are selected each year from regular people that audition. I enjoy watching Sanma’s quick witty, humorous come backs to all the women’s various remarks and stories, and how his jokes and gags are totally off-the-cuff / unscripted is amazing to watch.
Anyway because the 30 random women selected each year are just regular, ordinary people I can’t help but to notice the varying types of jaw development and how there is direct connection to their attractiveness, confidence, & social standing
Not all women on the show are selected for their beauty. Thus it gives a bit less biased perspectives on different faces in civilized society than looking at celebrities.
It is seen consistently that broad faces with wide jaws that have good horizontal development gives the women higher value, and the MC, Sanma is quick to identify whom they are as I feel most everyone can agree on the same individuals as most attractive.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” seems to only apply when comparing faces with Cranial Dystrophy, true beauty is objective.
But what causes the different facial structure and jaw types? Evidence suggests that the muscle tone and posture has more to do with it than genetics.
Following ladies were seen in this episode, which air in 2005
The Beautiful Group: This is the group of ladies that are perceived as most beautiful by the MC, the director of the show, and the public. Their stories reflect high social standing as it is about different men chasing them, or having many options for dating & relationship. When telling their stories, they appear the most confident.
broad, horizontal lower jaw – pretty rare to see in general population. She could possibly do modeling work because of it. Indicate great muscle tone, she also has excellent body posture. & great nose because of great maxilla position
She’s the one in the middle, front row. Good head & body posture. The girl to her right for example in the blue, has her head postured slightly forwards and her shoulders are rounded.
not as broad, eyes are not as wide set as above, bit of crowding at the right incisor / canine. still good muscle tone with pretty horizontal jaw.
Although she is in the last row seat because of her older age. She’s still perceived as beautiful lady because of her broad, horizontal jaws, but compared to the first girl, the maxilla is set down and back a bit. The nose tip angled down slightly
The Average Group: Perceived & treated as cute girls, but not beautiful. The MC enjoys picking on them and they are placed in a different “class” from above women. I do tend to agree, although girls can pull these types of faces off as the weaker jaw appears fine for the feminine, the faces become a bit plain and you lose the exquisite, super model type beauty that women with bolder jaws exhibit.
I think they had enough muscle tone to keep the mouth closed most of the time but not enough to create the broad jaws of above ladies, & possibly poor tongue posture as the face is a bit flat.
jaws set down and back a bit, flatter face with bit of crowding. indicate weaker muscle tone.
again crowding indicate maxilla is down and back a bit from ideal. jaw is not as horizontal and cheeks are flat.
Slightly lengthened but still attractive group: the face is bit longer and narrower, still considered fairly attractive but not on the same level as the first group, utilized in the show for their interesting character.
This group most likely left mouth open when they were little more of the time, plus they never developed their jaw muscles.
more obvious difference in the jaw from this angle compared to the first group. face is longer / narrower. smile is narrow, possibly orthodontic work done.
Although still pretty,the face is a bit too long for them to be considered beautiful amongst the group. Crowding present
The Less Attractive Group: Selected in the show for their entertaining character.
Face is longer and narrower. Maxilla considerably more set down and back from first group. More dental crowding. Less horizontal dimension in the lower jaw indicate weaker muscle tone.
poor oral posture and muscle tone.
Face is lengthened, slightly Class III, prominent lower jaw, possibly her tongue rests low in the lower jaw
The Cause of Different Face Shapes?
When looking at the above ladies and their occlusion, you can begin to see that Teeth Crowding is simply a consequence of a face that is not the right shape.
I have outlined that the square face is most attractive in previous article.
A study has found that individuals with this type of face with horizontal jaws had thicker jaw muscles while more vertical jaws had thinner jaw muscles when observed with ultra sound.
This suggests that the cause of difference in the jaws is primarily muscle tone not genetics.
Flat Face Stereotype of Asians
Girls with broad, horizontal jaws are rare in Asia & other developed countries. But I do generally think that the Japanese do have bit more cranial dystrophy than Americans on average.
Some possible reasons:
- Stereotype of Gum chewing American kids. Gum chewing may be more common in the US.
- white rice might be softer than bread
- Japanese cuisine seems generally softer than American
- Most Americans still live more natural lifestyle than Japan or UK. In the US, more children still grow up on farms or with huge acres. More outdoor activities & less video games = more calorie requirement = more chewing. I have heard that the Brits have bad occlusion, could be that they were simply affected much earlier as they were the first country to become civilized & developed.
- (notice how Football players most times have pretty good facial development, from their bodies you can tell they do much more mastication than the average person to get all those calories on board)
Even with squared jaws, the face might be flatter than the Western races in general, it could be due to lower tongue posture.
- The Asian language might use less tongue force on the upper palate. Japanese language is bit flat sounding and less accent, therefore resting tongue posture might be low for many of them.
To Raise a Child with Broad Face and Naturally Straight Teeth, Increase Masticatory Efforts
- a father listened to one of Mike Mew‘s talks and decided to have his new born daughter adopt a habit of chewing gum at least 1 hour a day, several years later he brought her to Mew Clinic and was told that she didn’t need treatment as she had developed nice horizontal jaws with great muscle tone.
- I hear people of Denmark have less malocclusion and generally better looking than the Brits. They prefer very tough bread over there, the Danish Rye Bread, Rugbrød. Over the course of child’s growing years, this one food item can make a big difference in facial development. When we see different facial shapes of individuals, you can say that we are looking at the history of their eating habits & posture. Beautiful people were either raised on tough diet or developed a certain love for tougher foods & chewing
How some individuals develop this preference towards tougher foods is unclear, but a good guess is that perhaps they were introduced to tough diet from early on, when they are babies being weaned off breast milk. For more info Baby Led Weaning: The Mush Stops Here may hold some answers.
Over Christmas break, my mom made some homemade sour dough bread that turned out rock hard, and I was surprised how much more masticatory effort was required to chew through it. I imagine this is the type of bread Danish people eat or people 200-300 years ago.
- Eliminate Effortless Calories from Diet: The question is why aren’t we chewing enough anymore. The big reason might be that after Industrial Revolution sugar had massive reduction in price and began entering everything we eat. Sugar is bad for health but it also quickly increases calorie content of food without requiring any chewing. The child can only do so much chewing to satiate their appetite, unless you make them chew gum. So the more effortless calorie you include in diet like sugar, fruit juices, candies, etc its that much less masticatory effort per calorie they perform for the day.
Conclusion
All babies begin with broad short faces with cute little noses. What happens thereafter seems more so a consequence of the individual’s lifestyle not genetics. Remember that early settler commented how physically perfect the indigenous tribes were, in Modern Times we have lost the way to great extent.
Crooked Teeth is merely a symptom of a face that didn’t growing properly. The key factor: Our jaws are not getting a proper work out now with our processed, soft diets.
Individuals with horizontal jaws seem to display higher status, beauty, and confidence. Not to mention, it is also the design that is most healthy and optimal for perfect occlusion.
Mike Mew is able to tell the muscle tone of individual by looking at how much horizontal section of the lower jaw they exhibit.
Along with the fact that muscle thickness is linked to horizontal jaws, there is strong hard evidence that suggest that great jaws are due to great jaw usage. When looking at an adult face, we are possibly looking at the history of their muscle usage and posture.
To raise beautiful children with naturally straight teeth, get creative at increasing their masticatory efforts daily & promote good posture.
1. Increase appetite
2. Introduce tougher foods from young
3. Omit effortless calories
4. Promote gum chewing
6. Tell them to stand up tall, sit up straight, keep mouth closed
It is possible but not always easy because there is no getting away from modern culture.
For ideal development, proper tongue posture and function has to be considered but muscle tone comes first because it seems to be the most important measure for preventing Cranial Dystrophy.
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-CP
Hello i am a 19yo male with flat cheekbones. Will chewing gum for 1 hour a day only make my jaw muscles bigger or will it help make my face less flat. I would also like to tell u that my face is quite similar to my moms (genetics). Pls help thanks
begin chewing more and get the back of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. http://www.claimingpower.com/tongue-posture/
you will begin to see changes.
How long would you say it takes to see minor changes in forward growth of the maxilla when applying your techniques? I’ve been tongue-roofing since June (so about 7 months) and don’t really notice any differences to my face. I mean, my mouth is more relaxed, but maxillary position appears to be the same.
Also, how long does masse tar hypertrophy take when chewing hard foods and hard gum (e.g. falim)?
Lastly, wouldn’t you agree that facial attractiveness is largely genetic? Bone structure, chin length, eye shape, cheek bone prominence, etc are all genetic. I highly doubt that every highly attractive man you see on tv (e.g. brad pitt, Johnny depp) had hard food diets and chewed gum all the time..that being said, I still buy into your stuff but I think facial attractiveness is largely genetic.
I believe it is both. But if you want to get 100{ae022d2295c0485893c83c8425b5bfafafba893c2d19b1bb9bc4c7c9bf3eeba6} of your facial attractiveness, then you’d need to have horizontal face growth.
People say I’m good looking even though I have vertical face growth but I know for a fact that with horizontal face growth my face wouldn’t be as long and I’d look much more better..
But yeah. I’m just lucky I’m not as ugly..
Hey!
I recently discovered this site while looking for fixes for chin recession. I started seeing the logic behind your theories of beauty and proper tongue positioning, etc. I’m 16 years old and I was wondering if this could still work for me as I have always been a late bloomer in puberty (developing slower physically than my peers) my face overall is great, with good eye color and shape, nice brow ridge, nice lips, forward grown maxilla, wide face, wide jaw. The only thing I’ve noticed and become insecure about recently is my chin, it appears to be recessed, I’m not sure if it’s a result of my recently gained face fat or bad jaw position? All my teeth are aligned well except for my lower front teeth; they are smaller than normal front teeth and have spaces between them and some of them are crooked. When my jaw is in a proper position along with my tongue, they basically get covered by my top teeth. What should I do to fix this? I’m going to start chewing the hard gum and making the most conscious effort that I can to keep proper use and tongue position. My parents both have very good facial bones and chins. Especially my mom, she has a great square jaw with high cheekbones and a wide chin. Please help! I thank you so much in advance! My chin doesn’t even come out to my front lip!
Here’s some pictures! Please help! I want to be respected in my life and I don’t want to get a sliding genio or any surgery for that matter! 🙁
http://www.imgur.com/a/sl5yr
Hello sweetheart. Your blog is interesting and I enjoy reading it but as a Brit I have to point out that most of us don’t live in cities, not by any means. Ours is a green and pleasant land, urban and rural, we have farms, homesteads, villages, isolated communities…the same as everywhere else. Many people live natural lives and have beautiful smiles.
Hi! Thank you for answering my past comment. Your website, frankly, is fantastic! Thank you for answering all of your readers’ questions. I am seriously considering a membership!
Let me flesh out the background to my next question more thoroughly:
I’m a girl in my mid to late teenage years. I have a very straight and level jaw, ‘correct’ and on a right angle. In the spirit of being completely truthful, a common story in my family is that, when I was a young child, strangers would come up to my parents and tell them I was extremely beautiful. Now that I think about it, it’s probably because of my jaw shape. Mine was very pronounced from toddlerhood.
My nose is normal and my face isn’t crooked. If my face had a shape, it would likely be a cross between an oval and a short rectangle, leaning towards a shorter rectangle than the image you showed. (I just don’t have the 90 deg bottom corners). My maxilla is pretty forward and my gums don’t show when I smile. Thanks to my cautious parents, I’ve never had braces, retainers, or anything else put on my teeth. Oh, and both my mother and father(he has the large, wide, strong jaw) were told when they were in their late teens/early 20’s that they’d have to get their wisdom teeth out. They didn’t listen, and they didn’t die of impacted wisdom teeth!
When I was around 15, an orthodontist ‘assessed’ me. He said I have a small overbite, lower crowding, and a wonky 2nd molar on the left top side that came in 180 deg turned. He told me I probably would NOT have to get my wisdom teeth taken out. Suprise!?
I live in an area where I am unable to visit the nearest ALF/Myobrace center (really anything, I’ve checked, it’s over 600 miles away).
Alright! Enough with my background! Here’s my problem. I have a 6 to 8 tooth smile. The 7 and 8 barely show (1cm). Since I also have dark pockets, I know that my palate can be wider.
With excessive gum chewing (all day), correct tongue position as per Mew’s guidlines, and correct swallowing, is there any way I can increase the width of my palate, or is it too late without some sort of therapy? I’m 17.
Thanks so much!! You are a wonder, and good luck and God bless in your journey to better teeth and better self confidence!
yes I believe proper oral posture, specifically raising the back of your tongue to the soft palate will accomplish this and accomplishing great posture is more powerful than any treatment out there long term. It will take consistent effort.
Thank you!
Hi CP,
What do you think of the idea that hormones play a part in ideal facial bone development? I was thinking the other day about how steroid users can end up with squarer, masculine looking jaws. This is very often attributed by observers to the increased testosterone and other androgen levels.
However, I think that perhaps the hormones affect facial bones in a roundabout way: higher hormone levels = more muscle development (including facial muscles) = bone changes. I remember reading a study a while ago that compared steroid bodybuilders with normal bodybuilders, and it showed that the steroid group gained just as much muscle doing absolutely nothing as the normal bodybuilders did when they were training.
Hormones also have some direct action on bone metabolism, which would of course aid in any re-modelling. Perhaps higher hormone levels AND increased muscle usage would create the biggest changes to facial structure compared to just muscle usage.
hard evidence is lacking to support hormones affect jaw development.
Ideal development is ideal development, it doesn’t matter if you are female or male with different hormones. This has more to do with muscle tone with jaw usage, tongue posture, swallowing pattern. I have seen plenty of females with way impressive jaw development, yet no testosterone and they look feminine.
Now beginning to increase testosterone and start working out could increase your appetite, and begin eating more calories everyday which equals increased masticatory efforts per day, which may be more of the cause for the changes that might occur.
other than that its outside my understanding, if increase test levels increases muscle tone all over the body including jaw muscle then there might be an effect. But I would place actual jaw usage as more important for change.
“The Asian language might use less tongue force on the upper palate. ”
I speak multiple Asian languages – along with English, and I find this to be very very true. I’ve found my english voice is much more articulate with the tongue up, whereas the opposite for something slurred like chinese/japanese.
You don’t discuss anywhere about how to get a wider chin